


we have more in common than i thought

by pseudofangs



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - School, Dan Howell and Phil Lester Are Teenagers, Drinking, Drunkenness, First Kiss, M/M, Nerd!phil, POV Alternating, Secret Admirer, Secret Crush, and becky and jessica are in this, bad boy!Dan, because why invent original characters when you have those two?, general cheesiness, or secret admirers uhh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-20
Updated: 2019-11-20
Packaged: 2021-01-24 04:49:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21332536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pseudofangs/pseuds/pseudofangs
Summary: bad boy!dan has a bit of a secret crush on nerd!phil, and when grouped with him in class he uses the opportunity to convince him to come to a party. (what happens next will shock you!!) (not really, no shocks don't worry)featuring a latin class, a party, becky&jessica, flustered drunk boys. and more softness than intended.
Relationships: Dan Howell/Phil Lester
Comments: 5
Kudos: 53





	we have more in common than i thought

**Author's Note:**

> this was originally intended for the pff bingo 2019, for the prompts: secret admirer, nerd/bad boy, and muse,  
but i’m rubbish at deadlines (won’t brag, but almost as good at procrastination as dan, lol) and i didn’t manage to finish it in time, whoops. afterwards it ended up becoming a bit longer than intended, but i’ve finally finished it now, so enjoy!
> 
> btw i have no idea whether latin is a class they could have in england, but i’m pretty sure i was supposed to be doing latin homework when i started this, so that’s the explanation for that. just take that with a grain of salt anyways.. okay now enjoy! :)
> 
> * signals a shift in pov btw

Phil was sitting in class listening to his Latin teacher, Mr. Bennett, going on and on about something called accusative and infinitive construction, and normally he would have been listening attentively, but it was Friday and this was his last period. He would much rather already be at home and enjoying his weekend in peace and quiet, instead of being stuck here with all these people who weren’t really his friends.

“Now,” Mr. Bennett’s voice cut through his thoughts a bit louder than before, “if you would direct your attention to the board. I have divided you into random groups of three. If none of your group members are present today, just tell me and I’ll add you to another group, but if you’re just missing one member you should still be able to complete the task just fine.”

Mr. Bennett set the class to the task with a wave of his hand. Phil blinked a couple times trying to collect his thoughts, what was this task again? Oh right, they had to translate a few lines of some Latin fable to English. Phil looked up at the board trying to see who he would be translating with today. His eyes landed on group three:

Philip L.  
Emma S.

Phil read the first two names before noticing the third. It seemed like a good start, Emma was nice enough, easy to work with, and reasonably at Latin. His eyes scanned the classroom looking for her, but they didn’t find her. He let his gaze return to the board to locate the third member of the group:

Daniel H.

Phil felt his eyes widen at the sight of the name, Dan Howell wasn’t exactly the type of person he preferred to be in group with. Dan was loud and obnoxious, his clothing was edgy and dark, and he was always smoking behind the school where the teachers couldn’t see him, in other words: Dan and Phil were nothing alike.

With a sinking feeling in his gut he turned to look for Dan. He found Dan’s brown eyes already looking apprehensively at him, and as Phil took in the other boy’s completely black outfit and his obsessively straight fringe which mirrored his own, the sinking feeling in his gut slowly turned in to something else as he felt his own frown gingerly turn upside down.

*

Mr. Bennett was rambling about something and Dan wasn’t paying attention, he never really pays any attention in Latin. He never really pays much attention to much of anything in school, expect maybe the raven-haired boy with the nerdy glasses who’s currently sitting a bit in front of him in class.

Dan was disturbed from his idle observation of the other boy, who had somehow managed to captivate his attention for quite a while, by Mr. Bennett who was assigning them some task. His eyes turned to the board where some presumably random groups were shown, and his heart skipped a beat as he found his own name in the same group as Phil’s. He quickly looked around for the third person in the group, Emma, before realising that she didn’t appear to be in school today. It would just be Phil and him, alone, in the group. It felt like his heart did more than skipping just one beat this time.

Dan noticed Phil looking confused around, probably still scanning for Emma, and allowed himself just a moment more to study the nerdy boy. Phil was rather scrawny and lanky, quite like he had been stretched just a bit too thin, his hair seemed too black to actually be naturally black, and Dan found himself more intrigued by the other boy than by anyone else he had ever known. He wondered if Phil could even have it in him to like him, it’s wasn’t like he was the type of person that anyone could imagine Phil being friends with, so his chances were probably slim. He watched Phil a bit more apprehensively, what did Phil even think of him?

As Phil finally turned to look at him, with a quite guarded expression, he decided to at least try to see if he had any chance with Phil.

Dan rose from his chair, and with all the fake confidence he could muster, sauntered his way over to the other boy and plumped himself right down on a chair beside him with a proper cheeky grin.

*

Phil watched Dan make his way over to him and take a seat beside him as if it was the most natural thing in the world, when it in fact really wasn’t. And the all too cheeky grin Dan then flashed him, made Phil more than a bit flustered, although he couldn’t really decipher why.

“So,” Dan said leaning a bit forward in his seat, “looks like it’s just us, Emma is probably sick or something.”

“Yeah, probably,” Phil muttered looking awkwardly down at the table, he didn’t really know what to do around Dan.

Dan just grinned. “You’ll just have to do with me then,” and then added, “what exactly is it we’re doing?”

“Uhm, we just have to translate a few lines,” Phil shuffled some papers around on his desk before finding the text and handing it to Dan, “it’s one of Phaedrus’ fables, Mons Parturiens or The Mountain in Labor in English.”

“A Mountain in Labor?” Dan scoffed still staring blankly at the paper Phil had handed him. “What the hell is that about?”

“Well,” Phil began, “I think Mr. Bennett said that it was about something with people who speak loudly and promise much and grand things, and that they aren’t always the ones that really delivers such things. But I suppose that means it could also just be about that things, or people, aren’t always what they seem, and the ones who seems ‘best’,” he made weird air quotes at _best_, “aren’t always the best, or something like that, I don’t really know.”

Phil trailed a bit off after that, feeling that he had said a bit too much. Surely Dan didn’t appreciate his insufferable know-it-all rambling about some old Greek fable, but if Dan actually held it against him his face didn’t show it, as he just nodded seeming to contemplate Phil’s words.

“So uhh, the fable,” Phil said reaching for the piece of paper which Dan still was holding, “we should like probably translate that.”

Dan just nodded before adding: “Oh right,” and handing the piece of paper with the fable back to Phil.

Phil began to explain how to translate the fable and Dan’s face moulded back into it's blank expression as he said something about the accusative case. Not that this was surprising, after all, it never really seemed like Dan was the type to pay any attention in class. And Phil didn’t mind trying to explain it all to Dan, although the latter didn’t seem very keen on actually learning much of what Phil was trying to teach him, but he still managed to listen carefully to Phil’s every word.

In the end Phil ended up doing most of the translating, not that he really minded it, he didn’t find it particularly difficult to do, even when alone, and Dan was being surprisingly nice. Especially considering Phil’s earlier expectations, which mostly consisted of Dan being either an insufferable asshole or an all too intimidating bad boy. Neither of which quite turned out to be the case, although Dan did kind of live up to Phil’s bad boy- expectations, he just didn’t seem to be a very intimidating one.

Even though it was just Phil doing all the translating they ended up being done before time and most of the other people in class. This did, however, leave them without anything to do really, and the lack of purpose turned the atmosphere around them into something a place between awkward silence and surprisingly comfortable silence. Phil couldn’t quite tell which one it really was.

Dan was the first to break the silence.

“So uhh, guess it’s a good thing that you actually knew how to do this-,” his hand flailed out in the direction of the now finished translation, “-this translating, since I clearly have no clue.”

Phil just chuckled a bit, not really knowing how to answer. He didn’t want to reinforce Dan’s mildly self deprecating comment, even though it wasn’t that bad and actually pretty accurate this time, but it wasn’t like Dan couldn’t learn how to translate Latin fables if he tried to pay attention in class.. Belatedly he realised his thoughts were spiralling, and that the appropriate time period for answering had long passed and-

Luckily Dan saved him from spiralling even more downward with embarrassment from his own social ineptitude by opening his mouth again at that exact moment, apparently having decided that he actually wanted to talk to and have a conversation with Phil.

“So you’re going to Louise’s party tonight right?” Dan asked while prodding as his fringe like he thought it needed to be fixed or something.

_Louise’s party_, the party basically everyone else would be going to tonight, Phil felt his mind starting to blank, he never went to the parties everyone else went to, in fact he never went to any parties at all really.

Although he had, actually for once, been invited to this one, a fact that he appreciated even though he certainly didn’t plan on going, but Louise had invited him anyway. In fact Phil was pretty sure that she had invited everyone, Louise was nice like that. But Phil still felt his mind reeling, he was sure the question had been seen as completely harmless by Dan, but Phil hadn’t been expecting to be faced with own social ineptitude again so quickly. Two times in a matter of minutes was a little too much, even for someone as experienced in social ineptitude as Phil.

“Phil? Earth to Phil?” Dan called out a little bewildered.

Phil looked down realising that he had probably missed the appropriate time window to answer the question again, he really was a lost cause.

He shook his head a little. “Actually I wasn’t planning on going,” Phil said still looking down.

“Oh, why not?” Dan asked still puzzled, but maybe belatedly realising that he had made a slight misstep with the seemingly innocent question.

Phil shook his head again, but looked up this time. “It’s not a big deal, I’m just not a big fan of parties, that’s all.”

“How come?” was all Dan asked.

Phil shook his head, now for the third time. “I guess it just doesn’t feel like my scene, you know,” he said before adding, “I’ve just always preferred to stay at home, you know, by myself.”

A bit too late he felt that he had confided a bit too much in Dan, it wasn’t like he really knew him all that well, and a very short while ago his view of him hadn’t been very positive either, but somehow he just found Dan nodding now. Under these circumstances Dan actually seemed rather trustworthy.

“Yeah I guess I kind of get that?” Dan nodded with a thoughtful expression.

Phil felt his eyebrows shoot up his forehead. Dan related to that? Dan truly did not abide by Phil’s expectations of him, not that Phil minded, this Dan was much better than the one he had previously created in his head. And this Dan also seemed to express some kind of interest in Phil.

“But even if it isn’t exactly your scene.. It could still be fun, try new things, right? No pressure of course, just it could be a good time, maybe?” Dan asked holding his hands up rather disarmingly.

Phil just blinked quite owlish, he didn’t really know how to answer this one, but when it was Dan asking him to go to a party, almost inviting him, everything suddenly seemed very different. The idea of going to the party didn’t seem as far fetched when it was Dan asking. For some reason..

“And I’ll be there,” Dan added with an innocent smirk.

Phil’s felt himself blink again, still rather owlish, had his eyes suddenly developed a twitch?

He took a deep breath, for some reason he do want to go to a party with Dan, or at least he do want to go when it’s Dan asking if he is going, although he still considered himself clueless as to why. And even though he probably wouldn’t actually be going with Dan, that would be a bit much to ask, both for Dan and for him, the excitement springing from Dan’s almost-invitation still makes his chest fill with bubbles.

He steeled himself before answering. “Try new things? That does sounds like a good catchphrase,” with a glint in his eyes.

Dan eyes just glinted right back as his smirk turned into a full on smile.

*

Phil looked at himself in the mirror and tried to fix a splinge. This was a horrible idea, but he hadn’t been able to bring himself to say no when Dan had asked him to go to the party.

He sighed, he had really been looking forward to just spending some time alone, without people disturbing him through the whole weekend. But alas, this didn’t seem to be the way his weekend was going to unfold after all. Of course he had the option to just ditch the party, simply not show up, spend his weekend like planned, in his own company. But that meant ditching Dan, and the slight possibility of just mildly disappointing him.. No, it definitely wasn’t worth the risk, better to spend his Friday evening at some party where he certainly didn’t want to be, and probably wasn’t all that welcome either, than risking that.

He starred even more critically at the reflection in the mirror, but there wasn’t much he could do to change it right now. At least he could appreciate last year’s decision to start dying his hair a very black black. The last thing he needed right now was ginger hair, but that at the very least was one thing he had gotten rid of for the time being.

And after all, Dan was into the whole dark and edgy thing right? So he must be bound to prefer the dark hair over the ginger. Not that he had any reason to care if Dan liked or disliked his hair, that didn’t matter to him in the slightest. But still, having nice hair was a good thing, and if people appreciated his nice hair, well that was just a plus, and if one of those people just happened to be Dan, well.. -

Phil cut his thoughts short and sighed one last time while casting a last glance at the mirror before heading out. What was it Dan had said? Try new things, right? So that was what Phil was going to do, at least for tonight. It would be like a new temporary motto. Try new things.

He got to Louise’s place just a quarter of an hour after the party was set to start. That was supposed to be a good time right? Not to soon, not to late, people should be there by that point, and it wouldn’t seem like he was running late, ergo a good time to arrive.

Or so Phil thought.

After briefly wondering about the awkwardness of turning up to a party all by himself, Phil steadied himself and knocked on the door, as there wasn’t much else to do at this point in the procedure. Either he was going alone or not at all, so knocks he does.

After a few harrowing seconds of anticipation the door swung open revealing a sweetly smiling Louise.

“Phil! You’re early! And didn’t even know you were coming?” Louise exclaimed with the giddy excitement of somebody who has already started drinking.

“Early?” Phil asked with uncertainty, “wasn’t it supposed to start at eight? It’s over eight now right?” he quickly checked the time, just to make sure he didn’t totally miscalculate it or something.

He didn’t, it is in fact a quarter over eight. Maybe it wasn’t even supposed to start at eight?

Louise’s blonde hair bobs up and down with her nodding, and for a moment Phil is transfixed by the bouncy pink tips of it.

“Oh no, yes! You’re on time,” she said, “you’re just a little more on time than normally expected to be at a party,” she clarified upon seeing Phil’s dumbfounded expression.

“Oh,” was all Phil could say, although he still was tremendously relieved by Louise’s kindness of explaining it. Perhaps if this was the worst thing that happened tonight, it would turn out alright.

Phil belatedly realised he had severely underestimated the downsides of arriving too early, after being shown in Phil had found himself sitting alone on the couch. Most of the people who were here already were some of Louise’s closer friends and they were all chatting amongst themselves and sticking together. No one really made any effort to talk to him, and Phil felt his confidence fall short every time he tried to psych himself up to go talk to someone.

One of his only interactions after be shown in by Louise, was when she shortly after he had arrived came over to the couch he had claimed and handed him a drink. It was all out of pity he assumed, but he appreciated the gesture anyway and meekly accepted the drink.

It tasted alarmingly sweet, but Phil decided not to question what the contents were and just took a few big sips hoping it would drown out some of his social ineptitude. The sweetness was all he could taste and it drowned out any hint of alcohol which the drink presumably contained.

His next social interaction that night was just after he had emptied his drink. Two already drunk girls were swaying over towards his couch, where they giggling settled down beside him. Phil just eyed them and shuffled a bit towards the other end of the couch, away from them. They seemed fairly drunk and definitely not like anyone who would ever talk to Phil, or him to them for that matter.

“Oh my god Becky, shut up! I did not say John was cute!” exclaimed the loudest of them before drinking half of her drink in one huge gulp.

“Jessica! You so totally did!” cried the one apparently called Becky.

Only now did the other one, Jessica, seem to notice Phil. She eyed him with way too much interest for Phil’s taste, and it made him want to shuffle even further away, but unfortunately the edge of the couch kept him from doing so.

“Oh my god who are you?” Jessica exclaimed with drunk excitement while leaning far too much into Phil’s personal space.

“Uhh,” he said trying to lean a bit more back again, “I’m Phil?” it felt like a question. What did they want from him?

“Hi Phil,” said Becky a bit more softly before being interrupted by Jessica.

“Shut up Becky!” said Jessica and flipped her hair violently. “Phil! Why don’t I know you? Have I seen you before?” she added after having shut Becky properly up.

“Uhh,” Phil repeated not really knowing how to answer without sounding like a proper loser.

“Ugh, doesn’t matter! I totally need a refill!” she rambled on before Phil had time to think of a more illuminating answer.

She had already risen from the couch and swayed with Becky by her side who looked like a lost puppy ready to trail her forever, and before Phil had even comprehended what had just happened.

“Come on Phil! We need to get drunk!” Jessica exclaimed again, and before Phil knew it he too was being hauled up from the couch by the combined forces of Becky and Jessica.

Becky and Jessica happily stumbled towards the kitchen which currently seemed to be the place to store all alcohol, tugging a slightly reluctant Phil with them.

All the alcohol being stored was currently a lot, as the kitchen seemed to be drowning in it. To Phil it seemed like bottles where everywhere and he watched with wide eyes as Jessica rummaged through them all trying to find something that wasn’t empty.

“Oh my god!” Jessica said waving some colourful bottle around, “look what I found!”

“Oh my god,” repeated Becky and clapped her hands together, “shots!”

Shots? Oh no, was all Phil managed to think before Jessica was pouring them and he was stood with one in his hand. This one also being a particularly poisonous shade of green, Phil didn’t really think this seemed like the soundest idea, but what the hell. Maybe it would be easier communicating with Becky and Jessica, and all the other drunk people after this.

“Bottoms up!” Jessica shouted, before her and Becky promptly downed both their shots.

“Cheers,” Phil muttered trying to sound unafraid before knocking back his own head and following Becky and Jessica’s example.

The shot burned a bit as it slid down his throat and it tasted horrendous, but it didn’t seem to be made of pure alcohol like vodka, so Phil figured the decision probably hadn’t been his worst.

Before he had gathered his bearing again Jessica was handing him something else, a drink this time, made of god knew what and looking kind of muddy. He just accepted, the shot hadn’t been too bad right?

Becky and Jessica were giggling among themselves as they sipped their new-made drinks, until Jessica suddenly shifted her attention to the doorframe leading into the kitchen with clear excitement.

“Dan!” she exclaimed.

Phil whipped around and spotted Dan coming into the kitchen with a bottle of Smirnoff in one hand and a beer in the other. He was wearing some kind of ridiculously leather jacket with zips everywhere which he somehow pulled of, although Phil didn’t really understand how, but that wasn’t the point.

Dan plonked the Smirnoff down on the kitchen table among the countless other bottles and was immediately flanked by Becky and Jessica, who were bouncing up and down around him looking at him like he was their god or something, saying things like “shut up,”, “oh my god,”, and “shots!”, which Phil didn’t really understand much of.

Phil only noticed Dan looked to be a bit tipsy when he seemed highly unfocused answering the two girls giggling beside him. But Dan’s eyes did seem to focus when they meet Phil’s as he looked straight over the heads of Becky and Jessica, and he almost looked sober as a cautions smile played around his otherwise pouty lips.

“Phil! You’re actually here!” Dan greeted and his smile seemed to widen a bit more as he staggered over to Phil, and before Phil knew what was happening he was being pulled into a full on bear hug.

Warm. That was the only thing Phil could think, or feel, or smell for that matter. Dan was warm, and so warmth was engulfing him right now. Phil never wanted to let go, so he just clung a bit more to Dan and hugged him a bit tighter.

After a little while Dan did unfortunately let go, and Phil suddenly felt very cold as he fought his instinct to just pull Dan back into another hug. Dan just looked down to the ground and shifted his weight a bit uneasily.

“Sorry about that,” Dan said still shuffling a bit around on his feet, “I just didn’t- well, I think I was just a bit surprised to actually see you here,” he added as a way of apology.

“Oh, no worries!” exclaimed Phil, “I didn’t really mind,” he stuttered only belatedly fully realising the implication of what he just said.

But if the smile returning to Dan’s face was anything to go by, he didn’t really mind that Phil didn’t mind either.

Only then did Phil realise that Becky and Jessica seemed to have gone as quickly as they had arrived, presumably continuing their party elsewhere. Not that Phil minded, no not in the slightest, hanging out with Jessica and Becky had been fun, but that was all it was, fun, nothing more, nothing deeper. Nothing he genuinely wanted to spend the rest of the night doing, so unlike being with Dan.

Dan’s voice cut of Phil’s thoughts again, just like it had done earlier today.

“Ehm right,” Dan seemed to shuffle a bit on his feet, his momentary confidence from before gone now, “I should get rid this jacket of now,” he said patting the still ridiculously zipped leather jacket, suddenly seeming even more awkward.

“Right,” Phil managed to smile at Dan’s sudden awkwardness, maybe he wasn’t quite as calm and collected as he had previously seemed to be, or maybe pretended.

“It is a cool jacket though,” Phil added, his cheeks blushing. Surely that was a horrible compliment, and also taking things ten steps to far. He really needed to stop.

To Phil’s surprise Dan still didn’t seem to instantly hate him after that; another one of Phil’s display of his enormous social ineptitude. In fact, a slight blush was creeping up his face to match Phil’s.

“Tha- thanks,” he all but stammered, even managing a bit of his characteristic cheeky grin again.

“I should still take it of though,” he mumbled, repeating his earlier words, while making his way back over to the entrance where all the jackets seemed to be piling up in an ever-growing pile on the floor, seeing as the coat rack clearly couldn’t hold them all.

Phil just trailed wordlessly behind him clutching his drink, still not feeling very natural in the situation, although he did feel quite comfortable in Dan’s company, perhaps still a bit too excited for it to really be considered comfortable, but close enough. But the whole party setting was what was still feeling a bit unsettling to him, throwing him a bit off, not that he minded it very much right now under these circumstances, with Dan here.

After Dan had disposed of his jacket in the now even more grown pile of jackets, he turned back to Phil before shifting a bit on his feet. He did seem awfully unsure of himself and the whole situation. Especially when compared to the guy Phil sometimes saw smoking behind the bike sheds dressed from head to toe in black, and always with some black leather jacket to top it of, while standing there with his equally black clad-friends. Honestly the bunch of them were edgy enough to be smoking Black Devils, and Phil had always given them a wide berth when walking past. He definitely wasn’t willing to risk anything.

Looking at Dan now he didn’t seem all that intimidating. After being put together by fate, or Mr. Bennett’s random group making, Phil’s view of Dan had shifted significantly, he no longer seemed to be the permanently up-to-no-good bad boy. Now Phil instead saw him as just, or not quite just, another lanky teenager, who just happened to really like the aesthetic appeal of fully black outfits, and so, naturally, ended up grouped together with all the other slightly edgy, black-clothing-wearing teens, whose favourite activity just happened to be hiding from the teachers while smoking behind the bike sheds.

“Phil? Earth to Phil,” Dan said repeating some of the same words he had uttered earlier today.

And again Phil belatedly realised he had gotten all caught up in his own thoughts, almost forgetting the actual Dan who was standing right in front of him.

“You’re quite spacey,” Dan inquired while tilting his head a bit, “aren’t you?”

Phil felt a blush creeping up on his own cheeks again while he nodded a bit. “Yeah, a bit, sorry.”

He tried to hide his embarrassment a bit by burying his head in his still decidedly questionable drink.

Dan just smiled showing off his dimpled cheeks. “Don’t worry about it.”

“I think it’s cute,” he added after seemingly having regained his confidence.

Phil thought the whole world swayed under his feet, or at least that was what it seemed like. No matter how oblivious he was, and how sure he previously had been of the fact that there was no way Dan could possibly be flirting with him, there really wasn’t any other good explanation for Dan’s latest words. They could only be meant as flirting, and thus Phil was sure his whole face could only be positively scarlet by now.

Dan’s face too seemed to be gaining a bit of scarlet, even though his seemingly new-found determination which had arrived with his compliment, seemed to be staying with him, at least for the time being.

*

Dan felt his face flush with heat. He had actually just complimented Phil Lester, the boy he had been crushing on for quite some time now. How he even had the nerves to do that was beyond his comprehension. And he only barely managed to keep his cool as there now couldn’t be any doubt about the fact that Phil’s face now seemed to match his own in colour, if not for the fact that it perhaps was an even darker shade.

The whole world around them seemed like it was spinning, and Dan felt like he could float right through the air, and just bounce around with glee. Everything seemed more vibrant, especially Phil’s multi-coloured eyes, and Dan couldn’t tell if it all was because of Phil’s reaction to his compliment, or if it was the slightly intoxicated state which the pre-party he and his friends had gone to earlier had left him in.

Trying to keep his cool seemed to be more challenging than anticipated, as Phil appeared to actually have lost the ability to speak after the compliment, and Dan feared he had just majorly overstepped his boundaries.

Luckily the loss of speak appeared to be temporary after Phil belatedly managed to stutter something.

“Tha- thanks,” he managed, almost repeating the exact same stutter Dan had earlier, when it had been Phil complimenting him.

Dan felt his heart warm, mostly with relief, since Phil didn’t appear to think the compliment totally horrible, but also partly because Phil looked terribly flustered right about now, and that had somehow become a thing that Dan found unbelievably endearing.

Dan just sipped his beer, it actually didn’t taste all that nice, but it did the job, and right now it doubled it's functions as he used it to mask his own exhilaration, which seemed a bit too intense to be appropriate.

Phil, at loss for anything better to do, mirrored his actions and took another sip of his own drink. He grimaced quite violently, and the distortion on his face made Dan snicker; he looked like someone who had accidentally downed a whole ginger shot.

“You okay mate?” he inquired, trying to stifle his laugh, “or are you just not used to drinking?”

Phil shook his head, the blush still colouring his cheeks rather distinctively. “This tastes horrible! And I got no idea about what the heck is in it,” he said making an even more disgusted face.

“Or maybe it is just that i’m not used to drinking,” he added in a mutter.

Dan looked down at his drink to see something that did undisputedly look more shady than his own plain beer. It was a dark and muddy liquid, some undefinable shade of brown, a bit like cola, but with a dubious greenish tint.

“That does look rather disgusting,” he said nodding in agreement before taking another swig of his equally mournful beer.

“Almost more disgusting than this,” he added pitifully rueing over his now emptying beer.

“Want to switch?” Phil half-joked looking down on his drink with a grimace, “can’t be much worse than whatever this lovely cocktail is.”

Dan looked like he actually contemplated the offer until a mischievous glint appeared in his eyes.

“I have a better idea,” he said with his often worn cheeky grin returning, “better drinks!”

Phil’s eyes widened a bit. “You really think that’s a good idea?” he still seemed a bit unsure about the whole situation.

Dan nodded, his mischievous smile widening, “it’s an excellent idea!”

“We’ll make something much better,” he added with some new-found excitement before rather impulsively grabbing Phil’s hand and pulling him towards the kitchen.

A brief wave of shook seemed to course through his body as he again belatedly realised what he had just done. But with liquid courage in the form of alcohol coursing through his system it didn’t seem to be quite as far-fetched, in fact Phil’s hand felt quite nice in his own. And Phil had also been blushing earlier, after both his own and Dan’s compliment respectively, and that had to count for something, right?

And if everything went completely to hell he could always just say the gesture had been totally platonic, just two mates holding hands, going to the kitchen to make some nicer drinks. And so he kept pulling Phil after him, and to his surprise he felt Phil trailing after him without any objections.

*

Phil rather wordlessly trailed after Dan. He didn’t really have anything to say, as his mind still was comprehending the fact Dan had grabbed his hand, and he now was holding hands with Dan Howell, resident bad boy and smoker of cigarettes. The whole thing seemed completely impossible.

One minute they had just been chatting after their random encounter in the kitchen, then a few almost haphazard compliments later they were holding hands. Phil’s mind was still reeling from the whole experience and he definitely hadn’t quite processed what had happened quite yet. But Dan’s hand was still unbelievably warm and the feeling of that drowned everything else out, and all the possible confusion seemed to pale in comparison to this. This definitely felt right.

His whole body was starting to feel about as warm as Dan’s hand, and he had to restrain himself from succumbing completely to giddy laughter. He felt like he could float right up through the roof and then keep going. Expect maybe that wouldn’t be such a good idea; Dan probably wouldn’t float with him, which made the whole idea seem a lot less appealing. Also, the actual thought of floating too high to breathe properly when he already was having enough trouble breathing just as it was, with his own hand firmly grounded in Dan’s.. Well, he didn’t need to float to space to feel like that, although space was rather cool. Just not in comparison.

While his thoughts had drifted from Dan’s hand in his, as it did in fact feel rather more natural than when it wasn’t there, they had arrived in the kitchen with the countless bottles once again.

Dan’s hand stayed firmly in his as he started looking for bottles that actually still contained something. Having plucked a few things from the collection he turned back to Phil, his cheeky grin stilling colouring his face as his eyes possibly lit even more up.

“So what do you want Phil?” he said almost proudly waving his unoccupied hand at the few bottles he had lined up at the front, “now that you have an actual master mixologist to mix you something great?”

He added the last part with a particularly cheeky smile, somehow managing to make Phil blush even harder.

“Something sweet!” Phil exclaimed before he had thought it through enough to be embarrassed, “Or anything that doesn’t taste like whatever I had before,” he added feeling a bit more heat in cheeks.

Apparently everything he said around Dan was going to make him blush, or maybe it was just Dan’s intoxication giving him a bit of extra colour.

“That’s fair,” Dan nodded, and throwing on his apparently signature cheeky smile he added, “so not me?”

Phil felt himself getting more and more flustered by the second as he worried how many giggles were just too many.

“Don’t worry,” Dan waved his own cliche joke off with a laugh, “I can be sweet.”

And with that excruciating comment he turned to his mixology. Hopefully to mix something just a bit more sweet than the previously drunk beer.

With his new drink in hand, something of as doubtful origins as Dan’s fashion sense, Phil found himself being dragged back into the living room again. This time with his hand not quite in Dan’s, but still lingering around it, occasionally brushing against it. Probably not by accident, Phil hoped.

The living room was by this point a bit more vacant than earlier, now only containing the rowdiest or the drunkest of the bunch, everyone else having retreated outside or found somewhere else to hangout upstairs.

Dan took a quick look around the room and lifted an eyebrow at Phil.

“Want to go somewhere else?” he questioned with an earnest expression.

Phil quickly cast his own glance around the room. A beer pong game was happening in the middle, somebody was impressively nodding off in one corner, and Becky and Jessica were not surprisingly busy making out in another. It wasn’t exactly a place where he felt like hanging out right now.

He nodded in agreement, “yeah, let’s do that.”

With a quick smile Dan pulled him towards some inconspicuous looking backdoor leading to a spare room with one of those pullout sofas, currently in it’s sofa form, where Dan plonked down and sipped a bit more on his own suspiciously mixed drink.

“Do you think we’re supposed to be in here?” Phil inquired a bit nervously before falling down on the sofa beside him.

Dan cast a quick glance around the room and shrugged a bit, “just don’t spill anything and Louise probably won’t mind,” he said.

Phil felt more at ease here, in this deserted and presumably off limits room alone with Dan than he had felt anywhere else at this party surrounded by countless of other people and unknown amounts of booze. It was quiet here, just him and Dan, drinking on a sofa bed in some vacant room. It was nicer than it sounded when put that way.

Phil tentatively sipped on his drink. Apparently Dan knew what he was doing, it was rather good, at least compared to how dubious it looked when it was being mixed.

“Good?” Dan inquired seeing Phil taste his drink.

“Good,” Phil agreed with a smile. He felt almost drowsy with the feeling of it all and what remained of anxiety seemed less and less worrisome. It was a bit like floating, only not very elegant.

Dan’s smile matched his own, and Phil felt them leaning more and more into each other’s spaces, not drastically, or too near. Just slightly closer. Like personal space somehow didn’t matter as much, right now, here, with Dan.

Turns out what he had previous classified as him finding Dan intimidating, maybe wasn’t exactly that, or at least not just that, and what had remained of that intimidation, of that fear, seemed just that, a distant remnant. And maybe it had all just been a cover for something else, something Phil usually buried a bit deeper and kept very close to himself. But sitting here on the sofa beside Dan - the rules suddenly changed a bit, Phil felt himself allowing to relax, even sitting as closely by Dan as he were, or maybe it was exactly because of that. Everything felt easier now that it was just them, and Phil was keenly aware of how close they were sitting just now.

The music from the living room seemed to be the only noise really penetrating the wall and reaching them, thus making Phil lift his head in recognition. Somebody was apparently blasting Muse out there, loud enough to drown out all the other noise bound to be out there, simultaneously reaching them in their secluded little room.

Dan lifted his head in response to Phil’s reaction, “you like Muse?” he asked inconspicuously enough.

Phil felt a faint smile lingering on his lips, “yeah, I love Muse,” was all he could respond.

Dan leaned a bit his elbow to get a better look at Phil, “me too,” he muttered, and his eyes, albeit not completely focused, were still locked rather intently on Phil.

Dan was close, so close, and Phil felt like desperately drowning in the brown of those eyes. Dan seemed so sweet now, nothing like Phil had thought. But then again, what had he really thought?

Phil still felt the alcohol buzzing in his blood. It all felt oddly comforting, and he wasn’t sure he would ever want to leave this room with Dan. Everything felt languid and easy, and this was probably why people drank, wasn’t it? He closed his eyes as his body relaxed against the sofa, shoulder to shoulder with Dan’s. Everything felt easy.

Dan took a bit of a shuddering breath, “are we still trying new things?” he asked after a particularly long stare.

Phil felt his eyes widen a bit again, while the world around them definitely felt even more secondary to them than it just did before. But he still took a deep breath.

“That was the new catchphrase, right?” He sounded more ballsy than he felt with his heart stuttering in his chest.

“Right.” Dan just smirked.

Suddenly that glint was right back in his eyes, as he softly batted them at Phil. Phil wondered how Dan could seem so soft in this lightning, in this room, and so harsh when they were outside of it. It was probably all expectations and constructs, survival and misunderstandings. This Dan was probably closer to the real one, whatever that meant, but Phil still found that he appreciated the both of them now that he had a better understanding of why Dan acted like he did.

Dan’s smirk was gradually fading into a softer look, the glint in his eyes fading and making way for something warmer, less exploratory, more curious. Phil felt his heart beating faster under that look, his breath firmly caught in his throat. Dan seemed more radiant than ever in this moment, and Phil felt rather enthralled.

And suddenly Dan was leaning closer, carefully, Phil could have easily pulled away, but instead he let himself be mesmerised by the warmth in his eyes and the length of his eyelashes. And then there was nothing else but the soft warmth of Dan’s lips against his, so careful at first, and then slowly a bit more insisting.

Phil felt himself leaning more heavily against Dan as he tucked a hand against his head and threaded it through Dan’s hair. Dan’s hands more or less just seemed to encircle him, pulling him closer into the warmth of Dan. The beating of his heart seemed a bit steadier now, but it still felt as rapid as before, just more at ease now.

Dan pulled back for a moment, his eyes gliding over Phil’s a bit reddened face, seemingly just studying him with a smile before pulling him back into another kiss. Phil followed more than willingly.

This time around the kiss seemed to deepen a bit more, and Phil felt it as they developed a sort of rhythm to it all while Dan slowly fell back against the couch, laying on his back, tugging Phil along. His own body was encompassing Dan’s now, and the warmth of it all flushed both of their faces as Phil threaded their hands together, now moving in a bit more languid movements. Before slowly sinking fully down against Dan and burrowing his face a bit in his neck.

One of Dan’s hands loosened from Phil’s grip snaking around his waist and pinning him securely down against his own chest which was heaving in a slow but not completely steady manner. Phil sighed and felt Dan huff against his hair in return.

Phil noticed both his own heart and Dan’s beating forcefully against his chest, and only relaxed a bit when Dan’s hand gingerly carded through his hair. Everything about this night, or this whole day, had turned out so very different than his expectations otherwise would have pointed to. But still, trying new things seemed to have worked out to his favour.

“So, was that good?” someone mumbled a bit too close to his ear.

Phil turned his head to get a better look at Dan and those warm eyes while he softly returned the tentative smile now playing across Dan’s face.

“Yes,” he nodded as well as he could in his position, “very good, I think.”

Obviously nothing was perfect, but all things considered for a first kiss with someone in some back room at a houseparty, it seemed pretty good. And all things considered, Phil might actually really like Dan, so there was also that.

“Good,” was all Dan managed before Phil in turn had leant back in and planted another kiss softly on his mouth.

Dan seemed awfully soft after he again pulled back and Phil had a strong urge to reach out and poke his dimples as they popped out along his smile, but he restrained himself for the time being, instead just appreciating the sight of a red-cheeked Dan before him who again was threading a hand thoughtfully through his hair.

“You know,” Dan began faintly, “I think we might have more in common than I thought.”

Phil just nodded.

“Probably.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is my first ever published fic so hope you enjoyed it (?) i’m sorry for any grammatical errors, my first language def isn’t english, so feel free to point out any of those, either here or message me on tumblr (@hereandqueer-eek), or whatever you feel like! :)
> 
> feel free to leave a kudos, comment, follow me on tumblr, or whatever, if you want to :)


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